Heidi Boisvert's "(radical) signs of life," onstage at EMPAC this weekend, is a product of biotechnology — with the emphasis on "bio."

A doctoral candidate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Boisvert has focused her research there on "reinserting the body and affect into technology," she said. "There's been an overemphasis on cognitive benefits versus physical engagement with the world."

In "(radical) signs of life," which Boisvert conceived and directed, the human body serves as the essential source of information. Wireless sensors — tiny biomedical microphones — attached to six dancers (two sensors per dancer) pick up minute sound waves produced by muscle contractions and blood flow. That data is then translated into music and 3-D imagery.

The audience gets into the act as well: Motion-tracking sensors hung from above will pick up viewers' movements and integrate that data into the score and images. (Audience members will stand throughout the piece, which will likely result in more weight shifts and position changes to be fed into the system.)

"The tension I'm playing with is the juxtaposition between biodata and biomemory," Boisvert said. "We're reading the body as information, but the subjective self is filled with memory and emotion." If a dancer's nervous, or an audience member gets fidgety, those feelings will show up on-screen and in the score.

The dichotomy between artificial and emotional intelligence was brought home to Boisvert in a very personal way while serving as a caregiver for her aunt, who recently died. She was struck by the division between what medical technology reports about the state of the body, as opposed to the person's subjective experience.

In order to merge these two realities into a single performance, Boisvert recruited a handful of collaborators who are part artist, part geek. Marco Donnarumma designed and developed the wireless sensors, and created the software that amplifies the sound waves they pick up to a frequency accessible to the human ear (about 80 times louder). Based on this data, sound designer Doug Van Nort will improvise an electro-acoustic score for the work in real time.

Visual designer Raven Kwok is in charge of the imagery, which will be projected on multiple screens in both color and black and white. The visuals will be mirrored in a series of 4-by-8-foot reflecting pools that add an organic element to Allen Hahn's set design. Amy Nielson's earth-toned costumes were created with the placement of the sensors in mind.

"The dancer's bodies in relation to the sensors create the base materiality of the whole piece," Boisvert said.

To craft the most influential element of the work — the movement itself — Boisvert and choreographer Pauline Jennings, co-artistic director of the experimental company Double Vision, drew on the world of game theory. Boisvert designs games for social justice organizations; in 2008, she created the first 3-D social-change game, "ICED I Can End Deportation," which raises awareness about immigration issues by requiring players to navigate some of the challenges immigrants face, from court hearings to detention.

For "(radical) signs of life," Jennings choreographed a database of nine movement phrases, each about a minute long.

"The movement is very inspired by technology — hard edges, angles, how a machine might work," Jennings said. "It also had to be diverse enough to create diverse data — vibratory, percussive, softer."

Next, Jennings applied sets of rules that guide where the dancers are in space, what movement phrases they perform when and how they relate to each other. These rules are in play throughout three "levels," based on well-known game theories, through which the dancers progress. The first, inspired by British mathematician John Horton Conway's Game of Life, requires the dancers to "survive" by maneuvering into situations in which they are in optimal relationships to their neighbors (not too close, not too far). The second level focuses on community; each dancer has a specific trajectory that can be merged with another dancer's path when they meet. The third level mixes elements of the first two.

Even when they're exchanging information, the dancers don't physically touch, Jennings said. For example, if one dancer sees another jump, that might trigger a specific reaction; connection might also be expressed by making related shapes simultaneously.

"The communication is occurring across the stage, rather than through sharing and intimacy," Jennings said. "They influence each other (at a distance), much like the way we use contemporary technology to communicate."